A new website has catalogued the complete repository of republic India’s online coins and notes, and also provides monetary evaluation of individual items from a collector’s perspective.
The website, www.numiscape.com, was launched last month on the concluding evening of Mudra Utsav, the annual exhibition of the Numismatic Society of Calcutta, the 40th anniversary of which was held in Lake Town, on VIP Road.
The inauguration was done by veteran numismatist Basant Kumar Rathi, the patron of the Society, and took place in an adjoining venue in presence of senior dealers and collectors.
Ashutosh Modi, who had flown over from Jhunjhuni in Rajasthan, introduced himself as a collector. “I faced difficulties seeking information as the market is not organised. So I thought of creating a website,” he said.
There are dependable books that collectors refer to, like Indian Paper Money Guide Book, published by Manik Jain from Calcutta, and Indian Coinage British India Portuguese India Republic India (1835-2025) brought out by Sainath Reddappa from Chennai. New editions of these books are published periodically which carry market prices of the items as well.
But Modi pointed to two shortcomings of being completely dependent on books. “You can’t carry them everywhere unlike the phone which is always with you. And though the prices of coins and notes don’t change overnight, a book will not be able to give information as fresh as a website can,” he pointed out.
He lamented that the government was not promoting the hobby. “Our country has four mints. They sell commemorative coins only for collectors. Coins that are issued in regular course are not publicised, unlike stamps by India Post.”
Also, collectors, he said, were hard put to figure out which coins had mule versions (in which the die of a different coin gets mistakenly cast on the reverse side) or the number of variations of the die. “If there is an error in a coin, the government is unlikely to know. It is we, collectors, who find out such specimens.” He has included all varieties of mules, lion (the Ashokan lion can be fat or thin or have different fur lines) and dies on the site, he said.
As soon as a coin is issued, he promised to carry the news. “We will follow Reserve Bank of India’s gazette notifications or file RTI applications to gather information.”
The website, he said, was geared towards collectors. “We will provide guidance on the value of a coin, how much to invest, which coins are worth investing in or are rare. We want to bring clarity to this hobby. There is so much misinformation on YouTube that a new collector is likely to get misled. New coins should be accessible and market prices should be fair,” said Modi.
Coins on the website are searchable by mint, issue type (definitive or commemorative), year of issue, unit and denomination.
While Modi has started with republic coins (issued 1950 onwards) he plans to expand the material later.
The website is accessible only to subscribers. The launch offer for annual subscription is Rs 1,199 with three days’ free trial.
He urged more collectors to take up the hobby. “Small change passes through everyone’s hands. It is a matter of paying attention to the coins.”